Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL) Copyright: 2000 St. Petersburg Times Contact: http://www.sptimes.com/ Forum: http://www.sptimes.com/Interact.html Author: Donald F Murphy Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n053/a11.html Bookmark: MAP's link to Florida articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/states/fl THE PROBLEMS OF DRUG PROHIBITION Re: "War on drugs" corrupts justice, Jan. 6. I read with a good deal of interest William Raspberry's column, and I have to say I couldn't agree with him more. When are we going to stop trying to legislate morality? Drug users harm no one but themselves. However, with our current laws everyone bears the brunt of their addictions. Approximately 40 percent of our prison occupants are drug users or peddlers who did no harm to anyone but themselves at a tremendous cost to all the rest of us. The enforcement of the current "drug" laws has made drug peddling one of the most profitable "professions." A law officer, for example, can make the equivalent of a year's salary just by turning his head the other way during a sale, and the profitability prompts "pushers" to solicit usage among children and others who otherwise would not be tempted. When a teenager can be incarcerated for a lengthy prison term merely for the possession of a tiny amount of a "controlled substance," his term in jail many times makes a criminal out of an otherwise potentially model citizen. I grew up in the "Prohibition era" and observed firsthand the havoc caused by the criminal element, the Capones, etc., that it spawned. And it did nothing to deter the use of alcohol. In fact, alcohol was, if anything, more available than before, as perhaps drugs are now. My own father, for example, made his own beer. After the repeal of Prohibition there was no surge in abuse as the doomsayers had predicted, and the tax revenue from the sale of the beverages was a welcome addition to the public coffers. All of us would be better off if we spent this money on rehabilitating those already addicted and punished only those whose addiction harmed others as we do now with alcoholics. We would be better off not only socially, but financially as well. Donald F. Murphy, Dunedin - --- MAP posted-by: Eric Ernst